Robert Schumann’s piano pieces have been to me like a travel into the world of human imagination. The music is full of fantasy, emotion, riddles, rhythmic and harmonic sophistication and it explores the instrument in ways no other composer does. Since playing the Kinderszennen and Arabesque as a younger pianist, my teacher suggested playing Carnaval Op. 9 when I got older. When I approached the end of high school I took the Papillons Op. 2 as my graduation piece. At that point I also started analyzing the pieces I was playing, and so I wrote a small paper on the piece and got the best final grade. When entering the Tel Aviv University I embarked on trying to decipher the Davidsbündlertänze Op. 6. I’ve played it since in many venues. The piece is written by Schumann two alter egoes : Florestan and Eusebius, the piece requires bringing out a story line with two authors/characters and it’s a very unique phenomenon in the piano repertoire.
Listen to my live recording of the piece from Croatia:
When I started my studies with Pnina Salzmann, she suggested taking the Fantasie op. 17. For her it was the piece which with she won the first prize in Paris (when she was 16) and it was the first piece I’ve studied with her (I was 21)
Listen to the recording I’ve made after studying the piece back in 1994:
I’ve since also played the Schumann concerto and toured with the Intermezzi Op. 4 and these days I’m preparing Kreisleriana op. 16 and Carnaval Op. 9 for upcoming tours. My dream, on one day is to complete learning all of Schumann major piano works and to record them and perform them.